


What Now

by lilywafiq



Series: Awake [2]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Established Relationship, Gen, Light Angst, M/M, mcdanno
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 11:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7266040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilywafiq/pseuds/lilywafiq
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A companion piece to Awake. Grace chooses a college, Danny talks to Steve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Now

**Author's Note:**

> Got a few requests for a continuation of Awake, so I wrote this. It incorporated a story I was already planning on writing, I just reworked it slightly to be a companion piece. Awake takes place towards the end of this story.
> 
> Enjoy.

“Uncle Steve, can I talk to you?”

Steve looked up from his laptop and smiled at Grace. “Of course, take a seat.” He gestured at the chair opposite him at the kitchen table.

Grace sat and spent a moment thinking before she spoke. “I’m starting to look at colleges,” she began. “And I’m seriously considering heading to the mainland. And I don’t know how to tell Danno.”

“I see,” Steve replied, mind reeling slightly. Sure, he wasn’t Grace’s dad, but the teenager had been living with him and Danny for the past year ever since she’d decided she’d rather live with her dad. Steve had become accustomed to seeing her every morning and every night, and now she wanted to leave? It struck him that maybe that’s why she’d come to live with them in the first place, to spend as much time with them as she could before she graduated high school.

“He’s not going to like it,” Grace said, oblivious to Steve’s turmoil, “But I feel like this is something I need to do. I love it here, Hawaii is my home, but I want to get out on my own, have a college experience without my parents there constantly. How do I tell him that?”

“Well, you’re right. He won’t like it. But I think you just need to be honest. Tell him that. Tell him what you want.” Steve shut the lid to his laptop and studied Grace carefully. “I understand. Hawaii is my home too, but I had to leave. Just know that you can always come home, no matter what. We’ll always want you here.”

Grace got up and walked around the table to give Steve a hug. “Thanks, Uncle Steve. I love you.”

“I love you too, Grace.”

Steve watched as Grace left the kitchen and sighed. Once she told Danny, things were not going to be easy.

 

* * *

 

Danny couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Grace wanted to leave Hawaii? This was unacceptable, unfathomable, unconscionable... okay, maybe he was overreacting slightly, but really. What would he do if his little girl left the island?

“Danno? Are you okay?”

Oh, right. He should say something.

“Yeah, monkey, I’m fine. Just thinking.”

“I know this is hard,” Grace said, “But this is what I want.”

“I know. And I want you to have everything you want. Of course I’ll support you in this.”

“Thanks dad.”

“Now come here, I need a hug.”

Grace laughed as she wrapped her arms around Danny’s waist. Danny held her tight, wondering how many hugs were left before Grace moved away.

 

* * *

 

“I get it, I do, kids feel the need to move away when they hit Grace’s age, but I thought maybe she’d want to stay. Maybe she’d be different. But no, she wants to go to college on the mainland.”

Danny was pacing around his and Steve’s bedroom, airing his grievances. Steve was sitting on the bed, a book open on his knees. He wasn’t reading, every time he tried Danny would start up again. All he could do was nod and make sympathetic noises from time to time. Eventually Danny flopped down on to the bed next to Steve and stared up at him.

“What am I going to do, Steve?”

“I don’t know,” Steve answered truthfully. “But I do know that you need to trust her. Trust that she’ll make the decision that’s right for her.”

Danny reached out and took Steve’s hand. “What would I do without you, babe?”

“I don’t know that, either.”

 

* * *

 

Grace sent out her college applications, and Danny was so proud that she was accepted everywhere she applied. That now left her with the difficult choice of deciding where to go. Danny was pleased to see that she’d applied and been accepted to the University of Hawaii, but he knew that didn’t mean anything. Grace had made it very clear that she intended to attend college on the mainland. But deep down Danny hoped that maybe she’d change her mind.

He was having trouble sleeping too, all of Danny’s insecurities and anxieties were keeping him awake at night, which was leaving him grumpy and tired during the day.

It all came to a head the day Grace finally decided.

“Please don’t hate me, Danno, but I’m going to go to Stanford.” Grace almost whispered the sentence over breakfast.

Danny, who’d been awake most of the preceding night, just nodded dumbly. “Monkey, I could never hate you,” he eventually said. “You’re everything to me.”

Grace smiled sadly. “I love you so much. Please don’t think that this isn’t hard for me too. I’ve struggled so much with this choice. But I’m happy with the decision I’ve made, and I want you to be too.”

“I am so proud of you, Grace,” Danny said. “Believe me, this is going to be hard, but I’ll support you no matter what.”

“Thank you.”

 

* * *

 

After Grace headed out for the day, Danny headed out onto the lanai where Steve was drying himself off after a swim.

“Did she tell you?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, Stanford.”

“I’m sorry, Danny. I know you wanted her to stay here.” Steve threw a t-shirt on, and sat down on one of the chairs, hanging his towel behind him. Danny fell into the other chair.

They sat in silence, and Danny decided that he should probably find out what Steve wanted from their future. They’d been living together for almost as long as they’d been seeing each other. Grace lived with them. He figured that Steve was probably in this for the long haul, but Danny hadn’t slept well or enough, and the nasty thoughts that had kept him awake were back.

“What would you do if I said I wanted to move to California for Grace?” Danny asked.

Steve looked up and frowned. “What?”

“What would you do?” Danny asked again. “I need to know what we’re doing, Steve. I need to know what you want.”

Steve looked taken aback. “What I want? Danny, I just want you. I’ve always been clear on that, haven’t I?”

“You’re not answering my question.”

“I’d ask you to stay,” Steve said. “Stay here with me. Stay here for Charlie. He needs his dad too. Grace is old enough to take care of herself, you know that. And you know that no matter what happens, she’ll always be your Monkey. Danny, you’re the best father I’ve ever known, but eventually you need to step back and let them live their lives, and Grace is trying to do that.”

Danny stayed silent for a while, mulling it over. He knew Steve was right, and he knew deep down that he needed to stay for Charlie. And for Steve. “You want me to stay?”

“Of course I do,” Steve answered quietly. “I know you’re thinking I might not be as committed to this as you are, but you’re wrong. Danny, you’re the most important thing in my life, and I don’t want to imagine going on without you.”

Danny felt a giant knot in his chest loosen. “Aw, you’re getting soft in your old age, babe,” he said, trying to cover his feelings with humour.

Steve threw his towel at Danny and Danny laughed.

“Now, I’m going to go take a mid-morning nap and try and catch up from last night’s lack of sleep,” Danny said. “You are going to finish off that overdue paperwork that the Governor has been hassling you for.”

Steve gave Danny a mock salute. “Yes, sir.”

Danny stood and bent down to give Steve a kiss. “I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you, too,” Steve whispered back.

“Thank you for your support.”

“Always.”

Danny smiled and headed back into the house for a much needed nap.

**Author's Note:**

> [find me on tumblr](http://spacecowboybriony.tumblr.com)


End file.
